June 21, 2023

He Warned Police Would Kill Him. He is Dead


He Warned Police Would Kill Him. He is Dead
Anatoly Berezikov. Rimma Maslak, Twitter.

The anti-Kremlin activist Anatoly Berezikov was known in Rostov-on-Don as the man who rode his bike around town wearing nothing but shorts in the harsh winter, distributing anti-war pamphlets on his rides. Police detained and tortured him. Berezikov warned his lawyers he would be killed. He was found dead the day before he was to be released. Police quickly claimed he committed suicide.

Born in Shatura, Berezikov had a passion for noise music that led him to Rostov-on-Don's experimental music scene. He collaborated on noise synths with local music legend Papa Srapa (Eduard Srapionov) while making a living as a repairman. Berezikov didn't mention the war in his Telegram channel but attended protests calling for political prisoner Alexei Navalny's release and openly opposed Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Bereznikov took part in the Ukrainian project Khochu Zhit (I Want to Live), putting up posters warning Russians of the consequences of enlisting in the army. That was when he was detained for "treason."

On May 11, the FSB raided Berezikov's home without explanation, destroyed his things, and beat and arrested him. While in custody, Berezikov reported the police's rape and death threats to his lawyer, Irina Gak, and to activist Tatyana Sporysheva. He also showed the women taser shock marks that guards had left behind with their abuse. According to Sporysheva, Berezikov said, "I'm scared they'll kill me, and I won't live to see my exit from the detention center, that is, I won't live to see June 15."

On June 14, when she arrived to visit her client, Gak was told that Berezikov was not in the detention center. Gak only learned her client was dead when she saw his body being carried to an ambulance.

On the day he died, Berezikov, known as Anatoly Ryk in the local music scene, was set to perform at Moscow's "Noise and Fury" festival.

 

 

You Might Also Like

Spring 2023
  • May 01, 2023

Spring 2023

The Evolving Language of War * A Defiant Teacher * A Hopeful Priest * A Village Stand-Off * A Trip to Ukraine * Books We Liked * Last Words of Convicted Dissenters
Dance Floor Dissent
  • May 26, 2023

Dance Floor Dissent

A video of people singing pro-Ukraine lyrics prompted government intervention.
Flagpole Ripper
  • April 13, 2023

Flagpole Ripper

A man was arrested for tearing down a Russian flag at a police department.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
The Little Golden Calf

The Little Golden Calf

Our edition of The Little Golden Calf, one of the greatest Russian satires ever, is the first new translation of this classic novel in nearly fifty years. It is also the first unabridged, uncensored English translation ever, and is 100% true to the original 1931 serial publication in the Russian journal 30 Dnei. Anne O. Fisher’s translation is copiously annotated, and includes an introduction by Alexandra Ilf, the daughter of one of the book’s two co-authors.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955